Special Visitor

Today we had a special visitor from Denmark!  Rush's family is hosting an exchange student and today she came to teach us all about her winter holiday.  After presenting a wonderful power point that explained the traditions and customs of her country, Sofie helped the students make a special ornament.  This ornament is commonly made by school children in Denmark also. 

Water Color Paint

 Today, The Superheroes, were excited to see a new resource being used in the classroom - PAINTS!  We used the paints to finish a project comparing goods and services.  

 Everyone had to create (could be fantasy) a good or service 

they could sell and determine what price.  

You could buy a monster toy or handmade posters or purchase the services of a chef or a dog sitter.  

The final results can be found in the students portfolios. 

Fun Fridays

Every Friday, I set some time aside just for fun.  The students today decided to create a birthday cake using Play-doh and sing Happy Birthday to a friend, just for fun. 

Resources

Students realizing that you need certain resources in order to have what you need to survive. 

Exchanging

Students exchanging products to obtain the resources needed to meet universal needs. 

Summative

Our second unit of inquiry, How We Organize Ourselves, is finished.  The students worked on a summative project using what they know to complete the task.  I separated the students into cooperative groups to represent a country that had certain resources.  Each country was required to provide food, clothing, and shelter which are universal needs.   It was interesting to watch the students barter and exchange for what they needed.  One country exclaimed, "We can't get what we need because we have no resources!"  The final phase of the project was to reflect on how well your country worked together to make things happen.  

SinterKlaas Excitement!!

SinterKlaas Dag

Today was a very exciting day!  This month of December, we have begun to take a look at the different holidays that are celebrated around the world.    The students are learning about different cultures and their traditions and customs.   This week I taught them a little about my culture and holiday which is known as Sinterklaas Dag.  Somehow during the day someone (could it be Sinterklaas??) snuck in and left treats for everyone!  Yesterday, we had a clue that he might be close by because someone left cookie crumbs everywhere and left a special Dutch cookie for everyone!

Spark Park

For the very first time in first grade, we got to have our official recess!  Needless to say, ALL first graders were very excited.  We were lucky that we had the most beautiful day to enjoy the new Spark Park.   And in case your wondering, YES that is me on the equipment and 

NO it was not easy to climb up there!!

Math Work Stations

The Superheroes are hard at work during math workstations.  We spent some time gathering and talking about the work using math vocabulary.  The students are developing higher level thinking processes that will help them become great problem solvers. 

Walking through the Cloud

I took the opportunity to teach about clouds because it was actually foggy in Houston.  That does not happen very often.   So, we went for a walk thru the cloud!  The experience left us wondering about many things such as:  Why is the cloud not white when we walk through it?  Why does it feel wet and cold?  Is it raining? What are clouds made of? 

All these questions are leading us to inquire more about clouds.  It is a great segue into the process of research.  We started by writing down all the questions we wondered about.  Next, we narrowed the process down to one idea that we wanted to research.  We will continue the process in 2018, by learning how to gather information from various resources.